Eid-ul-adha a holy festival or a slaughter fest ?

Eid-ul-Adha popularly known as Bakra Eid is one of the grandest annual fests for the Muslims. The Muslims consider it a holy sacrifice day. The day also marks the completion of Hajj. While it is a day of elation for the Muslims, it’s no more than an assassination day for some of our animals.

The Muslims around the world vehemently defend the tradition. But last few years saw some of them showing mercy on this mass butchering. Some of the wise Islamic intellectuals feel a need to put a full stop to it.
Let’s start with the origin of the tradition.

The tradition of sacrifice corresponds to a story of Prophet Abraham as mentioned in the Holy Quran. The Quran says Abraham once saw a vision of a command from Allah to sacrifice his son Ishmael. When Abraham was about to follow the instructions of the Almighty, God sent a ram in Ishmael’s place to save his life. The Allah said that he already accepted his sacrifice.

So what calls for the senseless slaughtering of the goats? It can be the possible misinterpretation of the story. The story emphasises on the willingness of Abraham to give his most precious thing for the wish of Allah. How can the animal murdering even match up to the level of sacrifice that Abraham made?

Also, the last line of the verse mentions a ‘Momentous sacrifice.’ The phrase with time lost its real meandering. Now it stayed confused and superseded with ‘Animal Sacrifice.’

There is a question that remains unanswered. Allah sent the ram to save the life of Ishmael but who will come as a salvation to the goats that get slaughtered every year? It is we who can do this for the sake of humanity. If we want to submit a genuine sacrifice to Allah, we must consider our evils for that.

To commemorate the sacrifice of Prophet Abraham, we must be ready to sacrifice something that holds the highest value in our life. Animal sacrifice can never make up to the level of emotional and mental sacrifice that Abraham was ready for.

Now is the high time that the tradition gets eradicated. In the current scenario, it seems that the ones making a sacrifice are the animals.

The Muslims who claim it a sacrifice of a thing that they loved to the core aren’t making much sense.

Do you still think there is a need to slaughter millions of goats and then celebrate this massacre with joy and happiness ?
I wonder if Allah ( may the peace be upon him) would want us to celebrate this day in this form.